For the first time in its 51-year-old history, the annual Chicago Leadership Prayer Breakfast, attended by Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner and First lady Diana Rauner, among others opened with a Sikh prayer last week at the at Chicago Hilton hotel ballroom.
The Sikh prayer for peace and harmony was conducted by Rajinder Singh Mago, a longtime volunteer coordinator of mainstream community outreach at Sikh Religious Society in Palatine. Mago prayed to the one universal God for the well-being of humanity. Mago is also a trustee emeritus of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions founded in Chicago and also co-founder and on the board of governors of Punjabi Cultural Society of Chicago.
The prayer breakfast was sponsored by Chicago Sunday Evening Club and attended by about 600 people that included senior government officials as well as leaders from business corporations, religious, interfaith, civic, and non-profit service organizations.
The Sikh prayer was for peace and harmony came amid protests and turmoil in Chicago where police chief Garry McCarthy was fired that week, and minority communities demonstrated on the street demanding resignations of the Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, for the alleged cover up of Chicago police brutality in the cases of shooting deaths of black youths.
“Profound racism continues to plague our society. It’s reflected not just in who is detained or incarcerated, but who is shot and killed by the police on our streets,” said Cook County Board president Toni Preckwinkle. “I’ve lived in Chicago for 50 years. I’ve always believed that the police could not shoot and kill people with impunity.” Preckwinkle said surely people are facing a time of crisis, and a prayer breakfast is the perfect time for a call to action.
Gov. Rauner agreed that Chicago is facing a crisis. “This breakfast is occurring at one of the most important times in the history of Chicago,” he said. “We also have a breakdown today, a tragic breakdown, in the institution of public safety; a lack of faith and a lack of trust. It is the most essential element for it to function,” he said. Rauner said some of the most essential elements of restoring that faith are prayer, communication, and coming together to find solutions. “The biggest threat to our nation is the disintegration of the family unit,” Rauner added.
Keynote speaker, the Rev. Shannon Kershner, pastor at the Fourth Presbyterian Church, said what she is concerned about the most is the “polarizing ways” of political and public discourse at the local, state and national levels. “It would be much easier to give in to cynicism…to disengage in community life, to turn away from people who are different than us, whoever the ‘us’ is,” Kershner said. “But Chicago needs people (and) needs leaders who are committed to promoting an atmosphere of honest collegiality.”
Kershner urged community leaders to resist from language that demonizes others. “We cannot tolerate words that demean another citizen based on their race, their religion, their ethnicity, their neighborhood, their economic status, their physical abilities. We cannot sit by and allow language that barely conceals contempt for another,” she said as the room erupted in applause.
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